Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? – William O. Douglas

Black and White City by the Sea wallpaper II, Some Days Reality Gets Mugged by Delusions

The Las Vegas Sun in a smug write up of the debate between Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and former state representative Sharron Angle has decided Angle won. The Sun does note “because she looked relatively credible, appearing not to be the Wicked Witch of the West.” The Sun is basically an echo chamber for the state Republican party so they inadvertently acknowledge the very low standards of Nevada’s far right conservatives. There is a point by point write-up of the debate here – Topic-by-topic recap. The amount of lies, distortions, tilting at imaginary windmills, back tracking, borderline insanity and substance free policy prescriptions by Angle may have broken some kind of record. Angle hates health care reform and would repeal every single bit of it thus condemning 45,000 Americans a year to death. Despite her allegiance to the conservative cult of death, Angle swears she is pro life because she would use the power of government to force rape victims to carry any pregnancies that result in from rape. Angle has claimed she knows this political stance is dictated by God. The same God that Angle says make all Mormons – including Sen. Reid part of a cult. Someone must have coached Angle about her super sane claim Social Security is communism and must be privatized – she now calls her plan the “personalization” of Social Security. Angle tells a blatant lie that Reid has supported tax breaks for illegal aliens. That would be quite the trick getting a federal income tax break aimed specifically at illegal aliens. Yet The Sun and several other media outlets say the debate proved Angle is quite sane. Angle plays up the urgency of this illegal alien attack the U.S. is apparently under. Only illegal immigration is actually down and Reid and President Obama have shored up border security. Angle debates straight out of the right-wing nut playbook – always use fear and xenophobia to exploit any and all issues. Angle makes a big deal out of being pro constitution yet thinks that some Americans should be singled out as not deserving legal protections under the equal protections clause. Are there special redacted constitutions that right-wingers think are the real thing. She slammed Harry Reid for believing in the part of the constitution she does not like, does not understand or does chosen to ignore. Angle is positive “Obamacare” has increased health care costs and raised taxes. The CBO has maintained the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is budget neutral and studies have shown it will save consumers and tax payers money. It has not raised taxes or health care costs. Of course she did not cite sources nor did the moderator force her to justify those claims with any facts. Yet another conservative who is too lazy or stupid to do basic research and thinks she has the answers to the nation’s problems. If she wins is she suddenly going to start doing some serious in depth policy studies. Vote for Angle and trust that she’ll get her act together once elected. G.W. Bush ran on that platform and we all know how that turned out. Angle really hates health care reform and thinks government should not have a hand anywhere near anyone’s health care, yet she and her husband ( her husband was a government employee) have government health care. Angle has even said that any government involvement with health care is not ‘Americanism”. So Angle either thinks she and her husband are unAmerican or like every other conservative is a big believer in blowing smoke up America’s ass. Its possible both those attributes are true.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the opposite is true. Budget analysts typically measure the federal tax burden as a proportion of GDP because this accounts for the amount of our economic output that is devoted to paying federal taxes as the economy grows or contracts. Federal taxes from all sources were 14.8% of GDP in 2009 and are projected to be 14.6% of GDP in 2010. See the CBO report, “The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update,” August 2010, Table 1-2 (pdf).

By comparison, the lowest tax burden during Ronald Reagan’s Presidency was 17.3% of GDP. Under President Bush federal taxes reached their low point at 16.3% of GDP. See the CBO historic budget tables: http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf

Angle also believes the nation will fall into shambles if we make millionaires pay the same federal tax rate they paid during the Reagan administration. How will Angle or any of the other tea bags running for office pay down the deficit. That seems to be a mystery and there has been no call on the part of their supporters to publish exact numbers regarding tax or spending cuts. The Sun doesn’t care, after all she is a far right conservative and that is all that matters. You’ll just have to trust them when they get into office.

The mayor of Dearborn, Mich., rejected assertions by Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle that Islamic religious law, or “sharia,” had taken hold of the Detroit suburb. Angle made the claim after saying a “militant terrorist situation” exists in parts of the United States.

“There’s no sharia law in Dearborn, Mich. … It isn’t even talked about in Dearborn,” Mayor Jack O’Reilly told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night.

[ ]…“My thoughts are these. First of all, Dearborn, Mich., and Frankford, Texas, are on American soil and under constitutional law. Not sharia law. And I don’t know how that happened in the United States,” Angle added. “It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States.”

[ ]…In his letter to Angle, O’Reilly wrote that Muslims and Christians have lived peacefully alongside each other in Dearborn for decades.

“I am deeply distressed that you have been misled about our community and the way that we conduct our affairs,” he wrote. “Muslims have been practicing their faith in our community for almost 90 years without incident or conflict. To suggest that they have taken over ignores the fact that Dearborn hosts seven mosques and 60 Christian churches.”

We cannot in fact have Sharia law imposed on any city or state because of the 1st Amendment and the establishment clause that serves as a “wall” between church and state. Ironic that Angle would complain about religious law being put before secular law since she and the conservative movement do not believe in separation of church and state; regularly bringing cases before the courts that challenge the very concept of the establishment clause in the U.S. Constitution. If anyone is working to make Shaira law a possibility in the U.S. it is conservatives like Angle with their attacks on the Constitution.